The Last Few Months

Well things have been crazy the past few months. We were getting ready for the move, then the move and now we are unpacking boxes. We miss Virginia - the weather, the scenery and all the stuff to do but we are glad to be back in San Antonio. There has been a lot of growth in the past four years, but other than that it is the same old San Antonio. One thing that hasn't changed is the heat....but hopefully we will get used to it soon.

The kids are doing well. Right after we got here, Addison said she missed her old house, but now all she says is that she LOVES her new house. I think she is so happy to have more room to run around in. This house is about twice the size of our other one and Addie will stand at one end of the house yelling, "Mama, where are you?"

Nathan had his first IEP last week for ESY services. It went pretty smoothly....we just hope that the big one that will take place before school starts will go just as well. We are slowly finding new Drs. and so far we have been pleased.

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I made a short video of the past few months....I hope you enjoy.

White House Easter Egg Roll

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We were lucky enough to get tickets for this year's White House Easter Egg Roll. The Obama's had decided to put the tickets on line this year vs. the past years where people had to camp out to get them. I started trying to get tickets at 6am. At 2pm I called my mom to have her try since I had to pick up Addie from school. 30 minutes later she called saying she had the tickets!!

We had a great time. The weather was just right. We didn't get to see the Obamas but it was a wonderful experience just the same. There were about 6000 other people on the lawn at the same time. It was a little crowded but all the kids seemed to be having a great time.

We have been busy getting everything ready for the move. It will be here before we know it. Nathan went back to school last week.....for two days.....then he got sick again. He has a sinus infection, but we all decided that it isn't worth him being back in school for the rest of the year. He just can't seem to be able to stay healthy. So he will get homebound services again until we move and then hopefully he will be well enough to attend school next year.

Addie is doing great. Her lip/nose is just about healed.

Long Overdue

I have finally have found some time to update everyone on how things are going in our lives. My mom came to visit at the end of Feb. We were able to see the National Cathedral, which was beautiful, and visit the Pentagon 911 Memorial.









After Nathan's last hospitalization, we decided it was best for him to be kept at home and not go to school. So for the past several weeks his teacher has been coming into the home and working with him. The good news is that he is doing well and we are hoping that he will be able to go back to school on the 13th of April.

Addie is doing well. She had surgery on Tuesday. It was mostly just a cosmetic touch up. The surgery was about 2 hours long and she was able to come home that night. She looks like she was in a fight, but is doing well. She went to school today and the teachers said she did wonderful. Her classmates didn't even seem to notice her stitches or swollen lip. Her speech is coming along great. She will continue to have articulation issues until the holes in her palate are repaired, but she is doing really well. She celebrated her 3rd Birthday at the beginning of March. She got a new pink stove and sink, which she loves.

Last night, Addie told us that she needed a band aid. So she went upstairs and got this band aid for her head. I guess the one the surgeon put on her wasn't big enough!!




Last week, the White House, made their Easter Egg Roll tickets available online. I thought it would be great if I could get tickets for the kids. I tried from 5am until 2pm and had no luck. I went to pick up Addie and called my mom to have her try while I was gone. A few minutes later she called and let me know she got us the tickets!! We are so excited to be going to the White House and hope that we will get a glimpse of the President.

The other exciting news is that we are moving back to San Antonio at the end of May. We are waiting for our final orders, but it is pretty much a done deal. We are going to miss this area. Not neccessarily the people, but the area and the fact that there are seasons. TX has really only one season - HOT. We were so thankful to be able to experience on last snow.




We are also in the process of buying a house. It is one story with a loft area, which is great because it means no more carrying Nathan up and down the stairs. All the bedrooms and the living room are on the ground floor. It will suit our family so much better.



We hope everyone has a happy and safe Easter.

Everyone is home from the hospital! Addison was released on Friday on oral meds. She is doing great - no worse for the wear. She did great in the hospital, but really didn't like being hooked up to the IV. Nathan was released on Sunday. He is slowly getting better. We were finally able to get him off the oxygen today. He has a ways to go, but at least he is moving in the right direction. We have decided to take Nathan out of school until after spring break. We hope that he will have a chance to regain some of his strength and be ready to go back.

We flew my mom out on Saturday to help us out. She has been keeping Addie busy - or more like Addie has been keeping my mom busy:-) They are having a great time together, but Addie's energy level is a little higher than my mom's even though she is keeping up pretty good.

Thanks for all your prayers and well wishes. We certainly believe that they helped!!

Update on my update:-)

So things went from bad to worse. Addie had a sore on her bottom on Sunday. We took her to the Dr. on Monday and they cultured her and put her on some antibiotics. We got the call today from her pedi that she has a serious infection and that she needs to be admitted to the hospital for IV meds. So now Addison is also in the hospital - thankfully they think her infection has just stayed in her sore. They are looking to see if Nathan has the same infection as hers, just in his lungs. They are both on the other side of the hospital from each other. They can't leave their rooms - so Bob and I are going back between the two. It has just been a crazy week. They are putting a PICC line in Nathan tomorrow, so please say a prayer he will do well with the sedation and that both kids will be on the mend.

Update

I just wanted to let everyone know that Nathan is back in the hospital. He started getting sick on Monday and by Wed. night he was having trouble breathing. Our good friends at 911 were nice enough to give us a ride in their cool truck:-) Once we got in Nathan just started laughing - he like the bouncing and the sirens. He has pneumonia and they are now in the process of moving him to the Pediatric Intermediate Care Unit which is one step down from the PICU. They are going to try some positive pressure (Bi-Pap)to see if it will help him breath. He is a little better today,but I think he has a long way to go. We certainly appreciate any good thoughts or prayers for our little man.

I know that I have been so bad about updating the blog lately. We haven't been doing anything too exciting. It has helped that Nathan has been sick so much. Last Saturday we did take advantage of some nice weather and drove to Annapolis just for a quick ride. It was 60+ degrees in Springfield, but by the Chesapeake it was about 40 and very windy. We drove through the Naval Academy and got some lunch so that we cold have a picnic at Sandy Point State Park. We were lucky we had some old sweatshirts in the back of the van - it was freezing. Our picnic was over and done with in about 10 minutes. It was a nice drive though.

Nathan was taken back to the hospital on Thursday by EMS. He just started acting kind of out of it and was breathing really shallow. We thought he might be having a seizure (unlike any he had before). Once we got to the ER he started to get a little better only to have a seizure a few minutes later. We aren't sure what is causing these seizures be we suspect it has something to do with Nathan's sodium levels. If your sodium levels are too low you can have a seizure and if they are WAY TOO low you could die. We aren't sure if Nathan just needs more salt in his feeds or if his body is leaking it out. Since we are so good at begging - they let us come home last night. He is doing much better - he just has a few follow ups in the next few weeks. He is such a trooper.

Addie is doing good. She had a follow up with the plastic surgeon and he is going to do a quick touch up to her lip and nose in the next month.